{"id":697432,"date":"2026-05-27T07:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/697432\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T07:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:51:20","slug":"girls-football-team-crowned-best-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/697432\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls’ football team crowned best in the country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst Andoni Iraola led AFC Bournemouth into European football for the first time last week, another team on the south coast were going one better – becoming national champions.<\/p>\n

The Bournemouth School for Girls under-12s team recently saw off more than 250 other squads to win the English Schools’ Football Association tournament.<\/p>\n

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Their crowning glory came earlier this month with a win on penalties against Thomas Telford School in the final, which was played at the home ground of Championship side Stoke City.<\/p>\n

PE teacher Michelle Vincent said the triumph was “just the best feeling”, adding that the team now “feel like local celebrities”.<\/p>\n

“To have this amount of talent in one year group – it just doesn’t happen very often,” Vincent said.<\/p>\n

“They have really, really grown together as a team.”<\/p>\n

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\"PE<\/p>\n

PE teacher Michelle Vincent said the triumph was “just the best feeling” [BBC]<\/p>\n

The PE teacher said the squad was “so cohesive, so aware of each other, and so accepting of each other.”<\/p>\n

“I think that is basically down to football.”<\/p>\n

The team sailed past squads from across the country to make it to the final on 20 May at the 30,000-seater bet365 Stadium.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous,” Vincent said.<\/p>\n

But star goalkeeper Ella said the occasion had not overawed the team.<\/p>\n

“It’s always really nerve-wracking, but the whole vibe was amazing with all the fans,” she said.<\/p>\n

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\"Two<\/p>\n

The final was played at the home of Championship side Stoke City [BSG]<\/p>\n

As the game headed to spot-kicks, Vincent said: “I don’t know why, but I was not worried about the penalties whatsoever.<\/p>\n

“I knew I had between the sticks – she’s just amazing.”<\/p>\n

The team ended up winning 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw in normal time and were crowned national champions.<\/p>\n

“They’ve done so much but for themselves, for the school, their parents and they’re just an absolute credit,” Vincent said.<\/p>\n

“It’s been my absolute honour to share that journey with them.”<\/p>\n

Related internet links\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whilst Andoni Iraola led AFC Bournemouth into European football for the first time last week, another team on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[215274,273376,64,63,339995,122482,596,339994,130824,85,115798],"class_list":["post-697432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-afc-bournemouth","tag-andoni-iraola","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bournemouth-school-for-girls","tag-european-football","tag-football","tag-michelle-vincent","tag-national-champions","tag-sports","tag-stoke-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}